Esperando Na Janela...

Hope you all enjoyed this week's posts (I should travel more, I'd update mor often, lol)

I'll be back Sunday with tons of photos for you all. For now, keep waiting for me "at your windows" :-)

Gilberto Gil, one of the greatest Brazilian artists (and a Baiano!), sings Esperando na Janela, one of his classics, and one of my fave songs ever:

Porque Voltei - Because it was the right thing to do!

I LOVE suspense - here's the rest of Marília's story!

Continued from 03/24 where Marília, a recent "Voltei Americanizada," tells us her story about why she returned to Brazil and what life is like for her now!

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... I didn't want to come back, but I knew I had to do it. I didn't want to be there and wait for a new law, or for a guy to marry me. I can do better than that. If I have to do something I would rather do it by myself and take the credit for it. Did the whole thing with my visa make me very angry? YES, of course it did. But I'm just one in a million people that probably gets screwed over by immigration policy.

So, last december I came back to Brasil (Yes, with an S) and decided to go back to school. Now I'm an International Relations student at Universidade Paulista and hopefully one day I can make a change. Or at least warn others so they won't make the same mistakes I did.

Life in Brasil ain't easy. Clothes are expensive, people work their whole lives to pay for a car, and I can write a really long list of things that SUCK here.

But you know what? I'm a Brazilian citizen and living here I feel like there are no barriers for me. I can go anywhere I want (well, except the USA for a little bit). It's hard to make money, but who said we need money to be happy? I see my friends here, having a hard life. One of my friends shares a bedroom with her divorced mother and they make it work and she is a very happy person!!!! Americans take lots of things for granted. They need huge houses, big cars, and brand named clothes, while here we are happy having a little BBQ with "linguiça" and french bread.

Now one thing Brazilians are so far behind in is politeness. Not many people have good manners, no one says excuse-me! They just push their babies' strollers in front of you, cut lines, take advantage, talk on the phone while at dinner, sometimes SITTING AT THE TABLE! God damn it, it's a cell phone just take few steps away from the table. Americans are great with good manners. Or am I too Americanized and say sorry, please, thank you and excuse-me all the time?

All I know for sure is, every American I met and left behind became a little Brazilian and I came back a little Americanized :)

I still love the USA, I miss my friends there EVERY SINGLE DAY (they are like family to me), I miss the "easy" part of the life there, safety, freedom, the independence I had, my own car, living by myself, making money just sitting at a house while the kids slept and much more. But why am I gonna fight or go crazy for a country that doesn't accept me as one of their own just because I was born in a different place? I bet I know the lyrics of the the "Star Spangled Banner" better than many Americans!

Thanks Poly for the space here! You are my hero and you know that!!! Maybe one day we will meet halfway CT-PA, drink a Miller light, and laugh of all the things we went though.

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Thank you so much Marília!!

Kids, questions/comments for her?

beijooss,

-poly.

Porque Voltei - Porque Meu Visto Sumiu!

Hey kids!

So my surprise guest post is today \o/ I've discovered through this blog that I'm certainly, "not the only one," when it comes to interesting stories about living in the US and then returning to Brazil. So I've decided to ask a couple of the readers who have told me their stories to write a little bit about their Porque Voltei, stories and I'm going to develop a little bit of a series of these posts!

Today's is from Marília, who lived just outside Philly and is now... well, just outside São Paulo! I've asked her to monitor comments, so if any of you have any questions, please leave them here and Marília's said she's more than willing to answer! I'll let her do the talking now:

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Hi everyone!

To write a post saying "Porque eu voltei", I need to tell you my story briefly so you all can be situated.

I went to the USA in 2005 when I was 21 yo. I got a J1 (au pair) visa. Stayed there for my 1st year, enjoyed it a lot so I decided to extend it for the 2nd year.

At the end of the 2nd year, around July, 2007, I applied to change my status for a tourist. I didn't want to come back to Brasil yet and was trying to decide if I was going to apply for college or just ESL (English as a Second Language). Without getting a lawyer's, opinion I filled out the forms by myself, wrote a letter explaining why I wanted to stay longer and sent it out, knowing that the longest I could ask for was 6 months.

In the meantime, while I waited, I moved to a new house, so, the week I moved I sent out a Change of address application. Just to find out that my acceptance was already sent to the old address. It was a matter of 2 days and it got all messed up. I wasn't at the house, so the letter went back to the immigration office and I started to worry about it.

Long story short, I had to fill out yet another form and paid $300 to have a copy of it sent to me. When I got it, in october of 2008, it said I had to leave the country on the 3rd of april of 2008, and the date I would have gotten it (had I been at the house), was april 1st. So I had basically 48 hours to pack my 2+ years of life and get the hell out of there. Even had I gotten it, it would be hard to make it happen.

A year later, I decided to move back. Reasons why I came back: (Porque voltei)

- I wanted to study, couldn't do it;
- I wanted a "real" job, I didn't plan on being a babysitter for the rest of my life;
- I turned 25 years old and was afraid of getting too old without having a profession;
- Difficulty of access to health care (If I had a problem, only God knows how I would pay for it)
- I didn't want to feel stuck in the country and I hadn't seen my family for over 4 years, and couldn't go on trips out of the country that my friends went on;
- Fear, yes fear of for any reason if I did something I could get kicked out;
- Last but not least, I got tired of being an immigrant, of trying to find a way to get a driver's license, find a way to get a car registered, find a way to get a job, having to lie, and plus my situation was a major point of ruining a relationship I had with an American guy (His family initially thought I was an opportunist, I had to prove I actually liked him and didn't just want a green card, he didn't want to marry me just to give me a green card, and I thought if he liked me he would have helped and so on...)

I guess what made (and still does make) me angry the most is the fact that I wasn't there with 5 kids trying to take advantage of the schools, or doing anything illegal. I was just trying to go to school the correct way. It's not my fault the system is f*cked up and they send things late. I was told by a lawyer that even had I not gotten anything, I was supposed to leave before the 6 months were over. Why did they approve it for 9 months then?

Had I known this, I would have left earlier. I never planned on being there "out of status..."

To be continued, amanhã...

Toda Menina Baiana

I love to reference Carmen Miranda since, well... the name of this blog comes from one of her songs.

Another song of hers is called, "O que é que a baiana tem," and I found a video with her recording from 1939 talking about what Baiana women have that the rest of us don't! lol

enjoy!

beijossss,

-poly.

Bahia + Fun Links!

So, I don't know if I've told you all this yet, but ever since I was a little girl, I've always wanted to go to the Nordeste! I grew up with my father listening to great artists from the Northeast of Brazil like Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Luiz Gonzaga, Maria Bethânia, Alceu Valença, and the list goes on... My mother identified my favorite dish as being bobó de camarão, a dish from Bahia, at an early age. When I was 7, I took Brazilian dance classes where I learned frevo & samba and when I was 13, I took capoeira classes... And as my ex-boyfriend would tell me time and again when I would express my love for baianísses, "Polyana, você tem um pé na Bahia, né?!" Which means I "have a foot in," or I act like I'm from Bahia (which to paulistanos usually means all of the Northeast).

Tomorrow (Saturday), I will be fulfilling my dream! I'm going to Salvador and Morro de São Paulo, Bahia with my friend Gi and won't be back till next Sunday :-) But just so you don't think I'm neglecting you, I have surprise guest posts this week along with a couple of videos of some of my favorite artists from Bahia!!

In the meantime, to keep you busy this weekend - here are some fun links from blogs and papers I follow (not necessairly Brazil-related)!

- Who doesn't do this at work?

- Perfect "When life hands you lemons," quote!

- Are you Brazilian and live in or plan on going to Italy?

- What do you think about the Chinese Yuan? Should it be rebalanced?

- My mom's pão de queijo recipe on The Portuguese Blog!

- Brazilian Socialites (from the Good Blood - SUCH a great blog find)

- Different (and easy!) ways to make a difference :-)

Have a wonderful week(end) my loves and I'll be updating Bahia pics as soon as I get back!

beijooosss.

An Old Irish Blessing.

photo credit: shannon patrick.

My grad program works in an interesting way. The program is broken up into 2 years and 14 modules. Each of these "modules," is about 8-12 classes, but that means we see the same teacher for 4 hours, twice a week every other week, for about a month, month and a half.

The first module ended last night and it was "Managing People," (comes in handy for an MBA, lol). The teacher for the course was this sweet woman name Regina who is a psycologist and who has worked mostly in HR, training people to be assertive in the work place and overall teaching managers how to do their jobs. She would make me miss my mom so much because she actually kind of looks like her (about 20 years from now ;-) And looks exactly like an aunt of mine - kind of scary, actually).

Right before we rushed out at around 11:05 PM, she asked us to hold on for a minute because she wanted to leave us with a blessing. "An Old Irish Blessing" which is probably my favorite of the ones I've heard so far which was:

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

All the girls awed (some of the guys too!) and we gave her a round of applause. She's such a sweetheart, so knowledgeable, and everyone just left kind of sad knowing we weren't going to have her as a teacher anymore, but definitely left knowing we'd learning a lot these last few weeks.

Anywho... going on with the Irish blessings in honor of St. Patrick's Day, I'd like to leave you all with an Irish Blessing as well today!!

A Wish for a Friend

Wishing you a rainbow
For sunlight after showers—
Miles and miles of Irish smiles
For golden happy hours—
Shamrocks at your doorway
For luck and laughter too,
And a host of friends that never ends
Each day your whole life through!

Hope you all have a blessed, and SAFE St. Paddy's Day!! I'll be celebrating at my favorite pub in São Paulo tonight with some of my friends. Yes, we celebrate here. You think we don't like Guinness in Brazil? :-)

What are you all doing?

Bolsa de Valores Políticos

Remember I said I wanted to talk about the upcoming Brazilian elections? And if you would hate me if I did?

Well, I come bearing great news about the elections - this idea came from a brokerage firm where you get to grade politicians with a certain, "value," as if they were money!

I'm just going to (loosely) translate to English what's in the video below because they explain their tool pretty well, lol.

BOVAP - Bolsa de Valores Políticos from BOVAP on Vimeo.

"BOVAP is an experimental project to get rid of the proverb that politics should not be spoken of. Politics should be talked about. But sometimes all people need is to know that their opinions will generate some sort of result. And this is where BOVAP comes in. BOVAP is a political investment tool with a financil lógic (philosophy?). In the stock market everyone knows is where people can buy fractions of companies, and here you can buy fractions of a politicians public image. You don't buy and sell company stocks, but you do buy political values. All with a fictitious coin called UVP (Unidade Valor Político, or, Units of Political Value). At BOVAP you learn to use the home broker and at the same time get to know the politicians who will be determining Brazil's future better. It's like the stock market where you buy low and sell high. It also continues looking grounds that will make each role more valuable. And just as in the financial market, any piece of information can make or break a politician's value. Everything will depend on how people will react to the news. Everything will rely on you and your buying and selling decisions. Because afterall, BOVAP is made up of the people. (marketing plug) Souza Barros is investing in your knowledge so that you can invest in Brazil."

Isn't it awesome? I'm going to play, are you?! :-)

beijoss,

-poly.

Undocumented in the U.S.? When it's a Good Idea to Stay or Go Home.

I need to post a disclaimer before proceeding with this post: I share with all of you my personal experiences through this blog and my decisions and actions may not necessarily be something you would want to go through with yourself, if you are to find yourself in the same situation as I was or am in! On the other hand, I highly encourage you to leave a comment if you want to share your story or ask for my opinion on your experience!!

Why the whole disclaimer? I finally went to see a lawyer last week after one year or so of having my tourist/business visa to the U.S. denied. My parents' green cards are still making their way to them, and I'm getting antsy and homesick more than ever, so I figured the least I could do was talk to someone who knew what he was saying about my situation and at least be at ease with a positive or negative position on what I should do regarding my attempts to go to the United States.

First of all - I do not plan on going to live there. I absolutely love my life in Brazil. But you know, you tend to miss the people you love when you're far away. So I just wanted to visit. And besides that, opportunities to make it there for work related conferences and trainings are starting to come up and I need to know what my chances are of actually making it to them! Here's the rundown with a little bit of everything I learned during my visit.

VENT SANS TEARS:

I get to the lawyer's office which is pretty simple, and this sweet old[er] man welcomes me into his office. I proceed to tell him my entire story holding back tears (I'm working on the whole crying thing); show him all my documents and letters from the consulate I hadn't even looked at since last March; and ask him what I should or shouldn't do.

HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY:

He then proceeds to first pat me on the back for telling the truth at the US consulate. They're quite good at tracking people which is why I still suspect undocumented immigrants are kept in the country for economic reasons (but that's a post for another day), so it's not a good idea to try to trick them and tell them you're going to Disney World and have never been to the U.S. before if you have and you were undocumented.

DON'T TRY TOO HARD:

Dr. Miguel, the lawyer, looked over my paperwork and told me I'd be wasting my money if I tried to get a tourist or business visa. Since I lived in the country for over a year illegally (the government doesn't care if you were dependent on your parents or not), I'm denied any type of non-immigrant visa for 10 years starting the date I left the country. This means I can't go just to visit, if I am to get a visa it would have to be an immigrant visa. If I were to try to get a tourist or business visa again, the consulate would be suspicious as to why I was trying so hard "just to visit." (even if my intentions are honest!)

BE PATIENT:

I have three options now. 1. Wait on my parents' green cards and then wait in line for a green card from them (or wait in line even more and wait for my American brother to turn 21 and apply for me); 2. Marry an American boy; 3. Get hired by an American company to work there. I know that I could probably be eligible for any of the three sometime soon, but since I can't go to just visit and would have to live there - I guess I'll just wait it out, finish my MBA here, grow more career-wise, and hey - maybe my company will even send me there to work for a year and I can enjoy being close to Momma and Poppa for a bit? :-)

HAVE NO REGRETS:

When I said the guy was sweet, I wasn't exaggerating. We chatted for about an hour about my case but also about whether or not I was happy in Brazil. I assured him I was, and he turns to me and says, "You know what? You're probably better off here than you would've been there. You're young, smart, friendly. You're native in Portuguese and English for God's sakes! You'll grow quicker professionally here, and you're not stuck waiting tables like you would have been had you stayed in the US. You couldn't have done anything about your legal situation there if you had stayed anyway." Thank youuu. That's what I've been telling people all along!

KNOW YOUR ROLE:

I honestly would not have come to Brazil if I hadn't have completed my college education, had I not spoken Portuguese as well as I do, and had I not been as extroverted as I am! It's not easy for someone to leave everything they have and no and venture off into new territory with no option to look back. But I'm not the only one who's done it - and I recommend anyone in a similar situation to do it themselves. Just know your options and risks. Talk to a lawyer you trust before making the decision because it's a big one. Do whatever you can to not break the law even more. And know that home is where you want it to be. Don't go to your home country if you're going to be pessimistic about it. Do go if you're willing to learn, grow, and share your experiences abroad with others. My two cents.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend and wonderful WOMEN'S DAY yesterday!! I hope you all remembered to thank the wonderful women in your life for being there!

beijoosss,

-poly.

O Ano Só Começa Depois do Carnaval!

Here in Brazil there's a saying that goes, "O ano só começa depois do Carnaval!" The year only begins after Carnaval.

I used to laugh it off... until it happened to me.

It's been a couple of weeks, but... I get back from my Carnaval trip and...

1. The DAY I get back, I sprain my ankle and end up going to the hospital that Wednesday and am forced to take the bus to work instead of my lovely walk to the train. *stressful.

2. I started my MBA! Granted it's only Mon-Tues nights (every other week but we had classes last week and this week this month... since we started after Carnaval, lol), but it takes getting used to getting home at midnight and waking up at seven (thirty... 8 o'clock...). I love my classes so far by the way. I'll def. talk more about them in my Academic Blog which is part of the program and will give you all a link to!

3. I started writing for a blog and a site. The blog is "The Portuguese Blog," where I'm honored to write beside Rachel :-) If any of you are here because you want to learn Portuguese or Brazilian culture in general, I'd suggest you check it out! The other site is a Technology site and tons of fun to read (if you're a geek like me) and it's called Mobile Local Social, run by a really interesting/funny/talented guy, whose name is Travis and I was also super humbled he asked me to write. I also suggest you check out the site and feed me IDEAS as to what I should write.

4. It was everyone and their MOTHER's birthday (including Lil' Bro and Pa Dukes), so a lot of birthday celebrations and buying gifts, and missing people going on.

5. My roommate moved out this week to move in with her boyfriend (awww), and I'm still looking for a roommate because the girl who was supposed to move in backed out... booo. If anyone knows anyone in SP looking for a room to rent, my apt's pretty sweet!

6. Work has been hectic! We've gained a new client and I've taken on some more responsibilities (which is good!), but also... takes getting used to :-)

7. The woman who cleaned our apt quit on us and didn't even let us know! Then wouldn't pick up my phone calls... so I spent most of my past weekends cleaning the apt (excpet for a quick day trip to Pico do Jaraguá)! We found someone else who started today though, so yayee.

Anywho, this was just a big excuse as to why I haven't posted in the past couple of weeks.

I have some topics to talk about in the next couple of weeks though:

1. Hanging out with you guys!

2. I want to talk about Brazilian elections here - is anyone opposed?

3. More on how much USCIS sucks (but really advice on Brazilians who are in the situation I was in, in the US and are thinking of moving back).

4. I'm going on vacation on the 20th!! \o/ Location to be disclosed soon... but it's exciting. Trust me.

beijooosss,

-poly.